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Nowadays, it is easy to create and reproduce digital images. Almost all of us have a mobile phone with a camera in our pocket. These digital cameras deliver a level of quality that a few decades ago was beyond the reach of anybody but a handful of professionals.
This proliferation of photography makes it easy to forget that until recently a photograph used to be something that cost a great deal and took a long time to produce. Until the arrival of cheap film cameras in the 1950s, most people did not even bother to learn their way around a camera. Instead, they would go to professional studios when they needed pictures taken.
As one might expect, the era of studio-based photography, which ended in the West in the 1950s, lasted until the early 1990s in North Korea. Indeed, in the Kim Il-sung era, a camera was an expensive status symbol well beyond the reach of the majority. At that time, most North Korean photographers used Soviet-made cameras (by the way, one of the few mass consumption goods my homeland was good at making), while an elite cadre of professional snappers owned Japanese cameras.
Cameras did not come cheap, and running them was expensive by North Korean standards. Film and the chemicals used in developing it were difficult to obtain and expensive.
Thus, North Koreans mainly went to studios rather than try to go it alone. Typically, every town and county had at least one photo studio.
Until the late 1990s, nearly all photographs taken in North Korea were black-and-white. Photos were not cheap ― three passport-sized photos would set you back 5 won (about 5-7 percent of the average monthly salary at the time).
Most photos were taken for use on official documentation and identification. There was also a tradition of taking photographs on special occasions, like college graduations and weddings. In the latter, one could usually negotiate a home visit from the photographer.
Generally speaking, in communist countries, photographers occupied a rather unusual position. Even in the Soviet Union, it was one of the few private businesses that was legal and accepted by the state.
Similar things were happening in North Korea. While studios were and technically remain state enterprises, in practice, most photographers began to operate as private entrepreneurs in the late 1980s, when the North Korean economy was still largely under firm government control.
By the early 1990s, pretty much all professional photographers in the North operated independently of the state. They bought their own equipment and other materials needed, while also making obligatory contributions to the state budget (not much different than taxes in more regular market economies).
In the last 20 years, North Korea has been marked by two revolutions in photography. First, in the late 1990s, color photography supplanted black-and-white. This was revolutionary stuff, and photographers advertised themselves as such. Second, in the mid-2000s, the switch to digital technology and computer processing changed the industry again.
Nonetheless, cameras remain quite rare in North Korea. Therefore, North Koreans are far more inclined to visit professional photographers than are citizens of developed countries like South Korea. Nowadays, most North Korean studios have computers and photo printers, while North Korean photographers are still unraveling the mysteries of Photoshop.
Incidentally, the switch to computer technology delivered a blow to many older photographers who lacked the money to invest in computers and printers. On the other hand, those who had the money have made a windfall.
It seems that in the early 2000s, a change in regulations also helped. Before then, North Koreans were discouraged (and maybe even outright banned) from displaying pictures of themselves in their houses. Only depictions of the ruling Kim family members were considered good enough to be prominently displayed.
However, it seems that regulations like these were cancelled ― or quietly forgotten ― in the 1990s, so portraits suddenly became popular features of a North Korean house.
Even in isolated North Korea, times and technologies are changing. These changes are not necessarily good for humble photographers, however. New easier technologies are arriving, so people are increasingly switching to do-it-yourself photography. The era of a corner studio is seemingly coming to an end in North Korea, as has happened in other parts of the globe.
Professor Andrei Lankov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul. You can reach him at anlankov@yahoo.com.
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